Inside our atelier — every room, every craft, by hand.
Every craft happens in-house. The wash floor, the drying room, the dye-master station, the restoration bench, the inspection desk — one workshop, one family, one method. Nothing is shipped out, nothing is delegated to a machine. This is a tour of the rooms behind the rugs.
The wash floor.
Our wash floor is the dedicated room where every rug is hand-washed. Antique Persians, oriental silks, and fine wool pieces are washed individually here — never in a batch, never on a machine. The floor is pitched, temperature-controlled, and lit for the work.
Every wash is calibrated to the rug. Water temperature, soap pH, and contact time are adjusted piece by piece, by hand. The slow rinse follows. This is the room where the wash plan written by the master artisan becomes the wash itself.
The dye-master station.
The dye-master station is where colour is read, tested, and matched. Glass bottles of madder, indigo, walnut hull, and cochineal sit beside brass scales and a hand-mixed lot ledger. Every dye-test for every rug is performed here before any water touches the rug.
When colour restoration is called for, this is where the dye lots are hand-mixed to match the rug's original palette. Light-fast, hand-applied, selectively painted — never a flood-dye that flattens the piece. The dye-master station is the room where the restoration work begins.
The restoration bench.
The restoration bench is the slow room. Foundation repair, hand-reweaving, fringe binding, selvedge repair, and pile restoration all happen here, by hand, by the master artisan and the family artisans. Hand-tools, hand-mixed yarn, and patience.
For antique pieces the yarn is colour-matched and tension-matched to the original weave so the repair disappears into the rug. Senneh and Ghiordes knots are re-set by hand. Most pieces are on the bench for three to six weeks. Restoration is never outsourced.
The drying room.
The drying room is temperature-controlled, well-ventilated, and lit by indirect light. Every washed rug is laid flat on slatted drying frames here — never tumbled, never hung from one edge, never folded. Flat drying keeps the foundation true and lets the pile lie correctly.
Drying time is calibrated to the fiber, the season, and the room. Antique wool typically dries in two to four days; silk takes longer. We do not rush this step — rushing a wet rug is how its foundation is permanently distorted.
A few frames from the floor.
A working atelier — not a showroom. Documentary frames from the wash floor, the bench, and the drying room.
Letters from across the Northeast.
A few of the rugs we've cared for — and the families who trusted us with them.
“They returned an heirloom Tabriz — the colors look exactly as my grandmother described them.”
“A 1920s Heriz I thought was beyond saving came back better than the day my parents bought it.”
“Our clients trust us with eight-figure homes. Horizon is the only atelier I send their rugs to.”
More from Horizon.
Other ateliers, every service we offer, and the rest of our story — a few directions to explore.
Send it into our workshop.
Tell us about the piece. The Cohen family arranges complimentary pickup across Manhattan, the Hamptons, Westchester County, Greenwich, and Stamford. Returned in better condition than the day it left.
By hand · By the Cohen family · By appointment